


The Making of Lancelot

by amyfortuna



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: But No Animals Actually Harmed, Fear of Drowning, Fear of Heights, Gen, Harm to Animals, Possible Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 09:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3286034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxy passes the final test with flying colours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Making of Lancelot

Merlin handed her the gun. 

“Shoot the dog,” he said. 

Roxy hesitated for the count of three, just long enough to make it look good. She levelled the gun straight at the black poodle’s head and fired. 

—  
 **Seven days earlier**

The water was rising all around her as she came spluttering awake. Nearby, Eggsy had already switched on his light and was frantically looking about. She caught Charlie’s eye across the room as his head whipped toward the shower area at the end of the dormitory. 

“The showerheads!” she said, just before the water went over her head. She’d had just enough sense left to take a last mouthful of air. 

Glancing around the underwater nightmare that the room had become, she counted her fellow rivals as she started to swim toward the back of the room. All the boys were swimming toward the showers, except Eggsy who was going the other way, toward the door. She looked around for the other woman in the group, Amelia, and at first couldn’t see her. 

But what was drifting in the flotsam of the room near Amelia’s bed in the rough shape of a girl wasn’t Amelia. She was sure of that. It didn’t move like a person. It moved like some sort of inanimate object, not even a dead body. It was just slightly too light for that. 

Grabbing one of the shower heads, detaching the actual head, and putting the cord down the u-bend of the nearest toilet took a moment’s attention. Eggsy was now tugging frantically at the door, blind to all else. Roxy looked across at the moving figure and was certain it wasn’t a person. Probably a very well-made life-size doll, tied to Amelia’s bed. 

Eggsy at last turned around and started swimming toward them. She was ready to share her air if need be, but he swam on, straight into the backing mirror, which cracked under repeated punches. Roxy, figuring out his line of thinking, was just about to move up to help him if need be when the two-way mirror gave way, and the water flooded out of the room. 

Merlin congratulated Charlie and Roxy for thinking of the shower heads, and Eggsy for realising about the mirror. Then his voice went hard. 

“But as far as I’m concerned, you’ve all failed.” He gestured to the white form of what definitely wasn’t Amelia, lying limp on the floor. Roxy felt her eyes widen; she was about to open her mouth and expose the trickery but changed her mind at the last second and shut her mouth with a snap. It would keep. 

—

**Three days earlier**

They landed hard, Roxy was breathless and panting, feeling a scream build inside her that she couldn’t vent, not just then. They were on the ground, they weren’t hurt, and they were inside the circle, if only just, and that had to be good enough. But this was a bad experience to have for the first time jumping out of a plane. The fear and terror that it was her parachute that was missing had given way to far worse fear and terror when she realised it was Eggsy’s that was missing and that she was the only one who could save him. Her hands hurt from where she had gripped his. 

After a minute she stood up. Whatever Merlin said, and they were nice things about her anyway, was lost to the buzzing in her ears and the blurring of her eyes with unshed tears as panic receded and a great sense of relief to be alive came over her. But Eggsy was angry, and as she moved away, she could hear him shouting, something about being the expendable one. 

Merlin gestured for him to come closer. Roxy, observing out the corner of her eye, saw Merlin pull Eggsy’s parachute. Her shoulders slumped in relief. That was definitely the second time they had not killed anyone. A theory was beginning to form. 

Later that evening, she sat down and worked it out. Merlin said this was ‘the most dangerous job interview.’ It appeared that Kingsman had certainly gone to some lengths to make it look that way, but certainly there were clues for the observer to see that wasn’t necessarily the case. Eggsy’d missed them, but then, Eggsy seemed to have a bit of a hero complex. Kingsman would certainly understand that, but being able to have all the information about a situation and not be clouded by fear and panic, that was the important thing. 

(She made a resolution to get over this whole fear of heights thing. She’d be no good if she was panicking every time she had to jump out of a plane.)

Twice now, Kingsman could have lived up to the ‘most dangerous job interview’ name. Both times, they had built in safeguards. Faked out the interviewees for a lesson. 

Well, third time would pay for all. 

—

**Two days earlier**

She woke suddenly. A quick survey: she was tied to train tracks. Even in the midst of an adrenaline spike, she couldn’t help but laugh a little, internally, at the situation. It was so very Bond. 

A strange man stood over her, shouting. She was to tell him what she knew about Kingsman and he would let her go. Otherwise - and here she became aware of a light in the distance - she’d be bug food on the tracks. It was an obvious ‘task’ - a test of character and of loyalty.

Well, third time - “I’m not telling you anything!” she said forcefully. Confidently. “I’d sooner die.” She was gambling a lot on her theory, and only hoped she was right. 

The train was right on top of her, but she wasn’t hurt. It rattled away over her. She smiled. They had dropped her down into a little recess below the tracks. 

“Well done, Roxy,” Merlin was saying, leaning over her, untying the ropes at her hands and feet. “You were the first, shall we watch the other two?”

Well, then, valid theory. 

—

After she fired the shot, her ears rang. Little Princess barked sharply, but Merlin was right there, covering the dog’s jaw with one hand so she couldn’t bark any more, and with his other hand injecting something into her fur. Princess immediately slumped to the floor. 

“It’s just to make her sleep for a bit,” he said in answer to Roxy’s questioning look, arranging the dog in a comfortable position. 

Standing back up again, he took the gun from her. “Blanks, yeah?” she said, feeling stunned and vindicated and a little shaky all at once. 

“How did you know? You were very sure of your decision,” he said. 

“I had a theory,” she said. “I observed. Then I tested. Now I’ve proved.”

“And what is your conclusion?” He set the gun down on a nearby table. 

“You made a point of saying that even trying to be a Kingsman is dangerous. But you were wrong in the first task, about teamwork. I checked Amelia, and that wasn’t her. It was a doll.”

“Why didn’t you say anything, then?” he asked. “Stick up for yourself?” 

“Because,” she hesitated for a moment. “Because I’m on your team. If you wanted to scare my fellow interviewees, that was your affair.”

She took a deep breath. “I thought for a little while that I was wrong. In the parachute task. I thought I had to save Eggsy. But it was actually me that was wrong. Both of us.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Merlin said. “Whatever precautions we may have taken, you did save Eggsy. He would never have even tried to pull his parachute, once he was the last one. He was so convinced that we thought him expendable, he would have died.” 

“I hope he doesn’t think that anymore,” Roxy said. 

“No, I don’t think so,” Merlin said. “Go on.”

“I tested the theory on the train tracks. The scenario was obviously a set-up. I wasn’t all that worried, actually. Surprised that Eggsy and Charlie were, to be honest. Really surprised that Charlie failed something so obvious.”

“Frankly, I’m surprised Charlie got as far as he did,” Merlin said. “The boy was clever, but had no idea of the way the world actually works. Eggsy’s got street smarts, and you’re a scientist, but Charlie was so involved in his own ego he could barely see an inch beyond his nose.”

Roxy smiled. “You’re talking to me like I’m a colleague.”

“And so you are, Lancelot.” Merlin put out a hand, with a sudden quick grin, and she shook it, grinning back. “Welcome to the team.”


End file.
